


Unpack Your Heart

by holysmoakingqueenz



Category: Arrow - Fandom, The Green Arrow - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Gen, Missing Scenes, Thanksgiving, part 1/3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-05-03 05:32:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5278577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holysmoakingqueenz/pseuds/holysmoakingqueenz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Thanksgiving in Star City + this year, Oliver Queen has so much to be thankful for. So much to be thankful for, he's still wondering if it's all a dream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unpack Your Heart

**Author's Note:**

> I really need some more Donna/Oliver interaction. I think Oliver was a total mama’s boy growing up and although Moira was, unconventional, she was his mother and he’ll always love her. I do think with all that’s going on in his life, there are moments he wishes his parents were around. We even got a glimpse of that during his couch talk with Felicity. All things considered, I think Donna is a great ‘fill in’ mother figure for Oliver, and although she knows she could never replace Oliver’s mom, she can fill the void just a little bit. All of that to say, I wanted some more Oliver x Donna, some more Donna x Quentin, and some Thanksgiving. So here is part 1 of 3 for some Arrow/Thanksgiving feels.

“Good morning, Oliver!” Donna said as she paraded into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. “Where’s Felicity?”

“Good morning, Donna. She is still in bed.” Oliver said as he held his cup of coffee between his two hands. “You got in, late last night.”

“I did not— you know Felicity was right, you definitely have some spider senses when it comes to hearing!” Donna said as she reached for the creamer in the fridge. “You look tired.. Why aren’t you still asleep, too?”

“I don’t know… I’m just, a morning person.”

“Oliver Queen… I would use your middle name but I don’t know that fact about you yet. Don’t lie to me. I may not be your mother but I’m a mother and I know when kids are lying. Felicity used to squint her left eye just a little and then push the bridge of her glasses. I know my daughter and I think I have a good read on you too, kiddo. And I’m hoping that I will be your mother by marriage one day.” Donna said as she pushed his shoulder. “So talk to me.”

Oliver took a deep breath and then took a sip of his coffee. “It’s Jonas.”

“What?” Donna asked as she sat next to Oliver at the table.

“My middle name. It’s Jonas.”

“Oliver Jonas Queen.” Donna stated. “It has a nice ring to it. Strong name. I like it.” Donna sipped her coffee and stared at him. “I’m waiting.”

“I don’t know how much Felicity has told you about my past.”

“I’m a waiter in Vegas. I read the tabloids. I also know there’s only so much truth in them too.”

“I, well — I don’t really mean so much about those days. I meant more my, extended stay.”

“Your extended stay on that deserted island or something? She mentioned that you’ve had a very unconventional life. I’m not one to pry.” Oliver quietly laughed in his chair and Donna laughed back at him. “Okay maybe I am one to pry a little bit. Keep going.”

“It was five years, it was a long time away from my family, away from all of this. My sense became hyper vigilant. I was constantly on the look out for something and the whole fight or flight thing.” Oliver said as he took another sip of his coffee and paused not finishing his statement. Donna smiled and took a breath. 

“I get it. In a weird way. When Felicity’s father left us, our lifestyle changed. I went from being a stay at home mother with a husband who provided for us— to a single mother who was living in a one bedroom apartment and sleeping on the couch every night so her daughter didn’t feel like her life was over. You become hyper vigilant, hyper aware of all the things around you, of all your surroundings because it can change in an instant. I’m not trying to compare your experience to mine.. .Because yours was life or death. But I get the, the it’s hard to sleep sometimes. Your mind is always racing a thousand miles a minute, or closer to mach 1 or something like Felicity would say.”

“It’s like I am a night owl and a morning person.”

“Do you have nightmares? I had nightmares for a solid three years after he left us. A nightmare that child services would take her away from me, that her father would file for sole custody, that I’d loose my job and she’d starve. They get better over time… Now I just have nightmares that I didn’t support her in the ways she needed me when she was little. I worked so much, missed so much, it’s time I won’t get back…. But then I look at what she’s done with her life. Graduating from high school and getting into MIT and then graduating at 19, working for Queen Consolidated and then VP of Palmer Tech, and now a C.E.O.” Donna wiped a tear from her face. “I don’t know if that’s because of her drive and willingness to be different from me or if it’s all the hard work I put into raising that genius child I had on my hands.” 

Donna stood up and refilled her cup. Oliver sat silently as she refilled his cup too.

“And you know, I’ve seen the scars on your chest. I am one to pry, but there’s also a line where there are things that I don’t need to know. Things you both will tell me in your own time. So I know you’ve had a hard life too, that your broken in some ways too. But listen to me kiddo… You’re one of the best men I’ve ever seen on this planet. And trust me, I’ve seen my fair share of men. And your running for mayor, and look at this apartment, and look at the life you two are building… You’re both doing okay. Better than you think sometimes.”

“I don’t know why she chose me. Honestly. I’m astonished every day…. I wake up every day and her blonde hair usually is a bush on my face…”

“Does she still do the starfish and then curl into a ball into your side?”

“I’ve been looking to put her sleeping style into words, and you just did.”

“Yes. For a tiny person she sprawls out for most of the night, and then she gets needy and she crawls into a ball and needs to be touching you. She did that as a little girl when I’d calm her nightmares too. I’m glad she still does it too.”

“She’s saved me and healed me in more ways than I thought I even needed.” 

“You know you’ve done the same for her? She needs you in her life more than she’ll ever know. It’s part of what happened last week, she just suddenly became so overwhelmed.”

“I figured — with all the Ray stuff going on….”

“What ‘Ray’ stuff? I swear you two are like a closed book sometimes… I know that there’s this massive secret you two keep from me and I’m not one to ask about it but maybe— I should.”

“It was just a recording that he left her from the night, the explosion happened. It kind of startled her last week and as you know, question some things.”

“She didn’t question… She just was, overwhelmed with how much she needs you in her life compared to others. And speaking of her.. It’s Thanksgiving… Why is she still sleeping? The child usually doesn’t sleep very late.”

“She’s had some, late nights, with me and Palmer Tech stuff. We’ve both been running ragged. I didn't have the heart to wake her up.”

“So what are your plans for today?”

“If things are, quiet, I’m just hoping for a dinner here. My sister and her date coming over. John and Lyla and baby Sara, and Laurel will probably join us.”

“Do you think, I could, maybe invite someone over?”

“Yes, but who do you know in Star City?”

“I met a gentleman at a bar last week. He said his daughter had plans, the other was out of town and so I said he could join me and my family for dinner… If it is too much of an imposition I can tell him not to come.”

“No, no, no… The more the merrier. I need to go to the store in a little bit and get some things and then cook.”

“Since I can’t cook… How about I go to the store for you and you make her some breakfast in bed.”

Oliver nodded as Donna got up and took the list from the counter.

“I can do that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Part 1/3. The next one will come on Wednesday and the final, and third, installment, to come on Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy! (All mistakes are my own.)


End file.
